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Rooster Booster

Another tenant has occupied its space at our building design project on the Guilford Green, and has done so in such a wonderful way and with such a delicious shop. It is called the Red Rooster Baking Company and it is a purveyor of gorgeously good gourmet cookies. I visited the shop over the weekend and feel compelled to trumpet it in its re-opening at this new location.

But first, a word about the building…

BEFORE

AFTER

A rewarding part of this project, for me, was the opportunity to treat what is really a single building as three distinct buildings and in so doing, create a streetscape design for what is a historic pedestrian village.

The key to the concept was the center building, what I have referred to as the “infill building” (which from now on I will refer to as the Red Rooster building!). We designed its new façade as a one story village storefront, and pushed it back from the street wall to reveal the corners of its neighbors on either side. We also pushed the second floor street wall back even further to create a balcony space above the street (for a separate tenant), which had the effect of further meandering the streetscape sky line.

At the entry of the Red Rooster, there is an outdoor vestibule, finished in tile. One marker of a pedestrian village, to my mind, is its storefront vestibules. All along the west side of the Green, up and down Whitfield Street, there are numerous examples of outdoor vestibules incorporated into the street wall. These are permanent porticos, of sorts – some recessed and some projecting. Small, semi sheltered areas that offer a weather friendly transition space from outside to inside and vice versa. These small spaces are public amenities, really, to the townsperson who has encountered a sudden downpour or a frigid wind or the like, and is thankful to find a moment of temporary shelter. Or, in this case, to tear into a just-purchased package of freshly baked gourmet cookies!

Credit where it is due: all of the design inside of the shop is the conception of the shop owner!

Best wishes to the Red Rooster in their new location, and I encourage anyone in the vicinity to stop in and get something delicious (very easily achieved!). You’ll find them at 16 Church Street in Guilford, basically at the corner of Broad and Church Streets.